New treefrog of the genus boophis tschudi 1838 from the northwestern rainforests of madagascar

Abstract

A new species of the Boophis goudoti group is described from elevations of 680–1100 m in the Tsaratanana and Manongarivo Massifs in north-western Madagascar. Boophis axelmeyeri n. sp. is morphologically similar to B. burgeri Glaw & Vences 1994, but differs by its eye coloration which has a red outer iris area. It is strongly differentiated in a fragment of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene (6.6% pairwise sequence divergence) and has advertisement calls with longer note durations as compared to B. burgeri. Specimens from the Marojejy Massif in north-eastern Madagascar, previously attributed to B. burgeri, are placed sister to B. axelmeyeri by molecular phylogenetic analysis. They differ by 1.9% DNA sequence divergence, and by a brown versus a red upper iris area, but are here tentatively assigned to B. axelmeyeri. This differentiation among mid-altitude amphibian species of Marojejy and Tsaratanana/Manongarivo may be indicative of a process of allopatric isolation among populations from these massifs. © 2005 by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.